Just A Strength Workout

 

Joseph called the name

  of the firstborn Manasseh,

"For," he said, "God has made me

   forget all my hardship....."

The name of the second

        he called Ephraim,

"For God has made me fruitful

   in the land of my affliction."

                 Genesis 41. 51-52

(All his devastating troubles

   became Joseph's training ground

          for such a time as this.

God built up in him

     strength upon strength.

Faithfulness always produces

   God's fruitfulness

             --seamlessly linked

    in a million uncountable ways.

Even in what is hard,

  God uses us

              for His greater good,

   far beyond 

       what we will ever know.

In Hebrew, Ephraim sounds like

   the word for making fruitful,

not a singular outcome

     but continual growth.)

O LORD,

In the hard stuff, the difficult,

   the we can't understand this,

   You are still powerfully working.

Help us learn to trust You more

                 even in this.

You have not abandoned us

   but are strengthening us

not just for the now,

   but continually working out our muscles

            for what is to come

   and for Your Kingdom.

We are not there yet,

              but we are growing

Be fruitful in us this day

  in all our endeavors,

        both great and small.

Help us to navigate affliction

             differently

because You walk with us.